For a year we have been locked down, masked, and told we cannot meet indoors for church or any other meeting. Everyone was ZOOMing and after months of that, I began to grow tired of seeing friends in little squares on my screen instead of in person! I missed the monthly luncheons with the ladies in my book club, and other friends. I went back to my old church because the new one I had just become a member of, even singing in the choir, was shut down and everyone was masked and meeting in the parking lot. I didn’t know anyone, for there had been no time to meet women in the women’s Bible study, and I was just getting to know a couple of women in the choir. Fortunately, I was able to lunch with a few friends, but sitting in their patio with our own lunches to visit. When restaurants could open outside, we could go out for lunch again. My Bible study group began to meet in my home again, minus a couple that, for health reasons, remained home.
In some states, including my own, governors were taking advantage of their temporary authority and going around their legislators to decree rules they didn’t follow themselves. I live in California, and when people had had enough, they gathered more than enough signatures to remove the governor in a recall election! I was told that the CDC said if we were outside in the fresh air we did not need to wear a mask and that was a relief to me as I have a problem having my face covered due to a incident in the ocean when I was around ten years of age. (I mentioned that in a previous post.) I love being able to walk with my little dog and breathe in the fresh air, but I see people running and jogging with a mask on and I wonder how it affects their breathing! Everyone has to decide for themselves what they feel comfortable with.
My husband and I enjoyed over 20 Road Scholar trips around the world but this last year three trips were cancelled and all their trips became “virtual.” I don’t want to see a film about Paris, I want to be there and experience it! I took nine of those trips with my grandchildren, covering Africa, Spain, Ireland, New Zealand, Hawaii, the Grand Canyon, the Miami Heat, and a Disney cruise to Alaska. That’s not counting trips to Italy, Israel, Germany, Mexico, Canada, France, and places in the US. My husband and I made an annual trip to Alaska to go salmon and halibut fishing and he made additional trips to Alaska with his buddies for fishing. He was an independent man (read strong-willed) and would have hated all this masking and non-travel restrictions! He didn’t use a computer or cell phone and the idea of talking to friends on my computer would have warranted a few choice words!
We are slowly coming out of the pandemic, restaurants, hairdressers, barbers, and other businesses are open and life is beginning to look more normal, if one can define normal right now. Hmmm…how about a road trip?
